The other day, as I was returning from the airport, there was a traffic backup where two major freeways merge. I decided that I did not want to wait in the traffic, and exited off of the freeway, looking for a shortcut. The shortcut would have worked if it had not been for the two extremely long trains that crossed my path. I would have been better off staying with the traffic and waiting patiently.

There are times in our own lives when we feel that we are in a traffic jam waiting for God to answer our prayers. While we are waiting, we become impatient, and want to take a shortcut on our own. A classic example in the Old Testament is Abraham, who got impatient waiting for God to give him his promised son, and took things into his own hands by having a son with Sarah’s maidservant, Hagar. Abraham’s actions created more problems for him that he could have prevented if he had waited patiently for God.

When we take action into our own hands and follow our own will instead of God’s will, we often create a mess. God tells us to wait on Him and not take things into our own hands. Psalm 37:7 states, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.” Let us remember when we get impatient waiting on God to be careful of the shortcuts that we might want to take, and instead, wait patiently on Him, because He is faithful.